Animal rights’ groups have made another move toward their goal of ensuring that gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains are never taken off the Endangered Species List.
Defenders of Wildlife and 14 other groups have petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to drag out the recently reopened public comment period on delisting wolves from 30 days to 90 days.
To review a very complicated wildlife management issue: Wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains were declared endangered in 1974; re-introduction efforts began in 1995. At that time, the minimum recovery goal set by U.S. Fish and Wildlife was 300 individual wolves and 30 breeding pairs. Those numbers were reached in 2002, and today, well over 1,500 wolves and 300 breeding pairs roam the region.
Since the number of wolves far exceeds the recovery goals, predation on deer, elk, livestock and even dogs has led residents, hunters and state DNRs to clamor for the right to manage wolves themselves. A controlled, regulated hunting season is of course part of their management plans.
Wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming were formally removed from the Endangered Species List in March 2008, with the intention of turning wolf management back over to the states. But in July, a lawsuit brought by a coalition of animal rights’ groups got delisting suspended. At the time, Ed Bangs, the federal biologist who led the wolf recovery program, said, “The hunting of wolves clearly wouldn’t endanger threatened wolf populations. We felt the science was rock solid and that the delisting was warranted.”
Regardless, USFWS has to start the whole process over; in October they re-opened the public comment period for 30 days in an effort to build a better case for delisting. In its letter to USFWS asking to extend the comment period, the animal rights’ groups accused the Service of “rushing through this delisting process in order to adopt a severely flawed plan before the end of the Bush administration.”
“Rushing through???” Since the recovery goals for the wolves were actually met in 2002, one can argue that USFWS waited entirely too long to get the process started in the first place. The animal rightists’ letter also completely ignores the overwhelming frustration residents of the three states are feeling at this maddeningly bureaucratic quagmire. Highly paid DC lawyers are keeping the issue locked up in a legal tap dance while residents of the three states are losing livestock, hunters are seeing predation increase on deer, elk and moose; and states are losing revenue because of lost hunting license sales. The desires of the human beings who live in wolf country are being subordinated to animal rights’ fanatics.
NRA and Safari Club International filed earlier this year to intervene in the case and will continue to stay engaged in this process on behalf of hunters and sound wildlife management. Should you wish to make your voice heard, send comments by November 28 to the Federal eRulemaking Portal at: http://www.regulations.gov or via U.S. mail or hand delivery to: Public Comments Processing, Attn: RIN 1018-Au53; Division of Policy and Directives Management; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; 4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 222; Arlington, VA 22203.
Organizations signing the stall-tactic letter include: Defenders of Wildlife, Endangered Species Coalition, Friends of the Clearwater, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Keystone Conservation, National Parks Conservation Association, Natural Resources Defense Council, Oregon Wild, Sierra Club, Western Wildlife Conservancy, Western Watersheds Project, Wolf Education and Research Center, Wolf Recovery Foundation and the Wyoming Outdoor Council.
